Editorial: Immigration enforcement paramount

Americans are naturally suspicious of any immigration plan that promises to stop undocumented workers in the future while granting normal status to those already here.

There's good reason for that suspicion. The last major overhaul of immigration law, in 1986, granted amnesty with little enforcement. Within 20 years, the number of people in the United States illegally had swelled from 3 million to 11 million.

That failure helped torpedo a fresh effort, six years ago, to fix the nation's broken immigration system. And it explains why enforcement is the linchpin to the latest effort, announced Tuesday by a bipartisan group of eight senators.

Like the failed effort of 2007, the new measure would enhance efforts to stem illegal immigration while creating an arduous route to citizenship for the estimated 11 million. The "Gang of Eight" plan also changes rules for legal immigration and creates a guest-worker plan for labor-intensive industries that have relied on undocumented workers.

The proposal released Tuesday includes a number of enforcement targets to be met before undocumented workers could apply for permanent residency:

? It would require that all of the border with Mexico be under surveillance and that law enforcement agencies apprehend at least 90 percent of those trying to cross illegally in areas designated as "high risk." The most dubious part of the plan would provide $1.5 billion for more fencing, which has proved to be something of a boondoggle.

? It would take on the most promising area of enforcement by cracking down on illegal immigration at the workplace. Employers would be required to participate in E-Verify, a federal program that matches a prospective employee's Employment Eligibility Verification form, or I-9, with government records. Currently, the program is voluntary, though some states require it.

? It would require a better system to track visitors to the U.S. For all the attention on border crossings, as many as 45 percent of the undocumented population enter the country legally, then simply overstay their visas.

The Gang of Eight plan will undoubtedly undergo changes as it wends through the legislative process. But it's a good starting point for addressing one of the nation's most vexing problems.

Opposing view: Border security's reality

In the symphony of sound bites about immigration reform, there has been a steady drumbeat to secure the border with more fences, more agents, more high-tech surveillance: more money, more money, more money. That drumbeat sometimes drowns out the facts about border security, and obscures the economic benefits that will flow from more balanced immigration reform.

Customs and Border Protection is staffed with more than 21,000 agents, its highest level in history, and double. Illegal border crossings are down by almost half over the past four years. Funding of CBP has increased more than 60 percent, to almost $12 billion last year. Since 2006, Homeland Security has spent more than $4 billion on border technology and infrastructure. Remember the "virtual fence" that cost $1 billion before it was terminated?

What we really need are solid metrics for measuring success and a smarter, more targeted set of enforcement priorities that will get the most bang for our border security buck.

At the same time, we need to ensure we aren't just locking people out, but also unlocking the historic potential of immigrants as drivers of the U.S. economy.

Bringing the undocumented out of the shadows will be a huge net gain to the economy, adding tens of billions of dollars in income and tax revenue and reducing the federal deficit by $2.5 trillion over a decade.

Highly skilled foreign talent has long been crucial to our competitive edge in technology and emerging businesses. Most foreign-born innovators and entrepreneurs originally came here to study math, science or engineering.